Led · Series A · Aug 2026

Vessev (formerly Seachange, and before that FreightFish, which built autonomous cargo vessels) designs and builds electric hydrofoiling passenger vessels along with the flight-control and telemetry systems that operate them. Its VS-9 entered commercial service with Fullers360 on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf in January 2025, and the company has since brought propulsion in-house with VS-Drive, an electric motor developed with co-funding from New Zealand's Low Emission Transport Fund. Operators in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and Europe have placed orders, including Taupō Hydrofoil Tours, Fly Derwent in Hobart, which has doubled its order, Finn Lough as its first European customer, and FlyTahoe at Lake Tahoe as its first US customer. A larger VS-18 is in development, and the company opened a US office in Rhode Island in 2025 ahead of entering the American market the following year. Founded by Max Olson and led by chief executive Eric Laakmann, Vessev employs 58 people at its Auckland, New Zealand headquarters. Financially, Vessev raised US$19 million (NZ$32.6 million) in Series A and follow-on financing in August 2026, led by Blackbird Ventures; the articles do not state a cumulative total raised across its earlier rounds.

Led · Seed · Aug 2026

Founded in October last year by Nik Wakelin and Ludwig Wendzich, Sterling develops AI software designed to automate routine finance and accounting tasks and act as an "autopilot" for finance teams. The product integrates with finance teams' inboxes and systems to pick up incoming items, classify and file them, and prepare work for human review. Sterling began user rollouts in March and reports it has already completed about 1,200 hours of finance work for customers. Early customers include honey exporter Manukora, early childhood software company Storypark and insurance broker Echelon. The company says advances in generative AI allow it to automate tasks such as reviewing expenses, matching transactions and investigating discrepancies. Sterling raised a $3.8 million seed round to fund expansion into New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Participated · Seed · Aug 2026

Alloy Robotics provides a data and analysis platform designed to ingest and organize high-volume sensor streams (cameras, telemetry, GPS, communications) generated by modern robotic systems. The company positions itself as enabling faster iteration for robotics teams by reducing the time engineers spend digging through test data. Its offering targets robot fleets operating off factory floors—in environments like farms, roads and other novel scenarios—where validation needs and data variety increase substantially. CEO and founder Joe Harris is highlighted in the coverage. The article frames Alloy’s product as addressing challenges driven by cheaper sensors and networked fleets that multiply data scale. No revenue, user metrics, founding year, location, or detailed financials were disclosed in the coverage.

Participated · Equity · Aug 2026

Vexev develops an autonomous robotic imaging platform, VxWave, that combines robotics, artificial intelligence and ultrasound to automate vascular ultrasound acquisition. Its initial application is upper-limb imaging for dialysis vascular access, with plans to expand into other vascular disease areas such as cardiovascular and peripheral artery disease. The company reported a 94% scanning success rate for autonomous vascular imaging by non-specialist clinical staff in a multi-site study with U.S. Renal Care. VxWave is an investigational device and Vexev is pursuing FDA 510(k) clearance to enable U.S. commercialization. Vexev has raised $19 million in total funding to date and intends to use recent proceeds to support regulatory activities, manufacturing scale-up and commercialization. The company emphasizes building clinical evidence to support future AI-enabled decision tools.

Led · Seed · Jul 2026

Superstat applies computer vision and AI to sports footage to generate pro-level statistics and highlight reels from game video. The company was co-founded by Cordelia King, Kai Bloomfield and Sam Hung and participated in Startmate's Summer '26 accelerator. It has crossed 5,000 users and reached $500K in annual revenue, with the United States noted as its largest market. Post-accelerator, Superstat is relocating growth efforts to Austin, Texas and is hiring a Founding Engineer to scale the product and team. The company positions itself to become a major sports analytics provider, according to the accelerator write-up.